


validation

by milkhouse



Category: Start-Up (Korea TV)
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Start-Up alternate ending, fluff?????, jinjae deserved better!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27934363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkhouse/pseuds/milkhouse
Summary: validation: proving market need
Relationships: Han Jipyeong/Won Injae
Kudos: 67





	validation

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s another fic for Jinjae nation!
> 
> If you’re interested in requesting a fic for me to write, please read the end notes.
> 
> As always, I highly appreciate kudos and comments.

It’s her first lecture in months, and the third since she’s started going by Seo Injae again. Dalmi said she shouldn’t worry. She didn’t need to feel ashamed. Embracing her real family name would make her stronger again. Injae wasn’t ashamed, of course she wasn’t.

Han Jipyeong is there, of course he is, after all, the event’s organizers asked him to convince her to be a guest speaker in the first place.

He overcomes his shyness when he asks her if she’d be available on that day. It’s funny how he’s shy— they live together.

Injae doesn’t even know why he didn’t mention it sooner. It happens on a Thursday. She’s sipping some peppermint tea from a lavender mug he bought her from a work trip. It was the first time she stayed at his place, even when he wasn’t there. Jipyeong’s head is on her lap as her fingertips dance against the keyboard—it’s just how they spend every night. 

It was probably mundane to other people, but Injae and Jipyeong wouldn’t trade it for the world. Of course, they don’t verbalize that thought.

Out of the blue, he brings it up, and she puts the mug down on the coffee table. Jipyeong intends to sit properly, but she pins him down to the couch, with her palm flat to his chest. She playfully smirks when she feels his heartbeat thud against her hand. He always looks at her like she’s the only person in the world, the twinkle in his eyes never dimming. She uses her other hand to squish his face and he groans a complaint from the discomfort. It suddenly feels a lot warmer in the room.

Even when Jipyeong frowned, the deep indents of his dimples made themselves known. Injae scrunches up her face at the sight below her.

“I’ll go.” she decides after a few grueling seconds of squishing his cheeks like they were putty.

He’s adorable, she thinks, and loosens her hold on his cheeks. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” he tries to soothe her, but she isn’t daunted by the ask at all. She wanted to do it.

There was nothing Injae loved more than speaking and conveying her thoughts to other people. Leaving an impression on others was vital to her lifeline. After all, she never allowed herself to stay mum about things that bothered her or people she cared about. It was one of the traits that gave Jipyeong an inkling that he loved her.

When Jipyeong tells her that he’ll be there as a guest speaker for the open forum, her eyes light up. She bends down and kisses him right then and there, he stares at her with wide eyes. Seldom did kiss him out of the blue, and he liked what she just did. “I’ll be there. What’s the topic?” Injae twirls his hair with her index finger, acting like she didn’t do anything to make Jipyeong blush like crazy.

“Validation.” he replies after sitting up, wrapping her into a bear hug and making her sit on his lap. She stays there as he kisses her forehead, nose, each of her eyelids, cheeks, and then finally her lips. Being cherished like this was surreal to her. Jipyeong never failed to softly praise her after each and every loving press of his lips to her skin, hair, and her own lips. 

Injae ruffles his hair, stealing a kiss from him when he pulls away to breathe. “Okay. We’re going together.” it’s declarative. She knows he’ll want to leave with her together, and her firmness renders Jipyeong smug, capturing her lips in another fiery kiss.

A week later, he drives them both to the convention center. They didn’t expect so much photographers to pay attention to them. But then again, Jipyeong still wasn’t used to being called Director Han. He would probably never get accustomed to it.

The media coverage was overwhelming, and the bystanders yelled when they saw Jipyeong and Injae emerge from the same vehicle.

The pair arriving together was extremely unexpected.

Injae and Jipyeong are interviewed by a reporter, and their respective interviews go smoothly. Another reporter suddenly asked Jipyeong what he thought of Injae. He nervously chuckled but carried himself. “Seo Injae is a respectable woman. I admire her and her diligence.” he briefly replies, nodding as they leave together. She only chuckles as he speeds up to match her pace and follow her.

Injae loops her arm through his as they walk to the venue, and he only secures it within his. He likes it, being able to behave like this in public without being scared. What he said seemed fine anyway, any more compliments and he would’ve been scolded for being cheesy.

Her talk begins and the audience engagement is surreal. Jipyeong proudly watches her from behind, and she regrets halting her lectures and demos for so long.

“Market need is important, extremely important. Proving that your service or product is essential to the market is called validation. Without being able to do so properly, your business will never be able to pique different investors’ interest. It won’t appeal to customers either.” Injae explains to the attentive crowd. Many of the faces Jipyeong sees are youthful, bright people with even brighter ideas, that both they and the world can benefit from.

When she gets the response she hopes for, she smiles and continues. Her visual presentation perfectly aids her, it’s like magic. They’re timed to move exactly in sync with her words. She didn’t even entirely go with the script she memorized based on each slide and element’s timing, she also improvised sometimes, but still pulled it off.

“If you’re frustrated because you don’t get the validation you want, you need to pause for a bit and reflect on your service. Set the money aside, why did you start it? Define your target market again. What are your goals? What will change for the better, because of your service? Why will investors want to pay attention to your business?” the four walls are filled with the strokes of the young people’s pens against their notebooks, and the tapping of their fingers against their keyboards. They were all attentive and taking notes.

The audience is silent for a while. They were all compelled to deeply contemplate their visions. “If you don’t feel secure about all of those amongst yourselves, you can’t expect others to easily accept your service and your ideologies. Always be concise, but interesting. Formal, and confident. Be ready to adapt to new market trends, because with each and every innovation, the world changes, and so do we.” she displays a chart representing Injae Company’s digital and physical marketing efforts. The attendees clap in amazement, the data showed that Injae’s team’s services successfully attained their goals, clearly seen from their value proposition, to the results of the initial stages in executing testing.

It thrills Jipyeong to be here, listening to the confident words of his beloved light up the room, encouraging the entrepreneurs in it to be confident too. His job was quite literally to help people, and he lived for it. Exhilarating as it was do see his mentees succeed, his heart fluttered even more as he watched Injae teach others based on her own experiences.

Her radiance was contagious, and Jipyeong found himself in awe yet again. Everyday, he learned something new about her that made him fall for her more. They weren’t always big things, and that’s the way he liked it. Sometimes, it would be Injae secretly preparing the clothes for Jipyeong to wear the following morning, or her sneaking in a chocolate bar in his briefcase when he went to work. Her post-it said that he had to watch his blood sugar. She often added packs of jelly too, and once, she packed him a lunchbox. He teased her for cooking so well, but Jipyeong was genuinely touched. The food tasting delicious was a plus.

Injae is almost done with her talk, when she begins to relate it with personal experiences. Jipyeong didn’t expect it, but it’s always a happy surprise.

“We all need validation as people too, right?” she suddenly says, and people in the crowd yell to agree. “I know I need a lot of it.” Injae bashfully admits, and the crowd nearly goes wild, creating a flurry of hushed compliments to the CEO. Jipyeong shyky covers his face for a second, when he hears someone yell his name.

Injae silences the crowd as she puts her index finger over her lips. “It isn’t bad to need validation, at least that’s what I think. We know that much of anything is bad, right?” the crowd audibly agrees as she points to some statistics on the screen behind her. Jipyeong’s too busy looking at her to pay attention, seemingly hypnotized by her dedication to the craft.

Her way with words was so fascinating. She absolutely stole everyone’s attention the moment the microphone was in her hands. Being able to impart knowledge in a way that was easy for everyone to understand in spite of not having the same academic background was a piece of cake to her, and even Jipyeong felt like he learned a lot from her lecture.

“Seek validation from your team-members, your peers, your investors, all at a healthy level. But mostly, prioritize validation from yourself. Why are you working to begin with? It’s no point to keep serving others if you end up being obsolete anyway.” her voice almost trembles as she finishes her sentence, but that detail is only something someone as observant as Han Jipyeong would notice. He was startled, but glad when she regained her composure within milliseconds.

She never talked about Chairman Won or Morning Group, not even out of spite. Injae was at ease now, because she knew she was successful because of her and her team’s efforts. She didn’t need anything from her former stepfather to make a name for herself.

“As entrepreneurs, we need to continue being positive somehow, to ensure that our consumers will be positive and have the best experiences too. Yes, reality might be harsh, but dealing with it optimistically is the game-changer here.” the audience begins clapping and she swats the air in dismay. She wasn’t really teaching them anything useful right now, that’s what she thought. To herself, she felt like a nagging mother.

“The team won’t be happy all the time. The only way to face your problems is to address them head-on. Communicate with your team and create a clear line to distinguish personal matters from business. Communication is key, and don’t let pride get in the way of letting you be honest.” she tells them the reality of the life of being an entrepreneur.

Follow-up questions are made and she answers them in seconds, without a hint of uncertainty in her gestures. Needless to say, everyone is spellbound by her charm.

She deeply bows when the host thanks her for gracing them with her presence, and Jipyeon claps so loudly his hands turn red. “That’s all for today! Again, I am Son Injae of Injae Company, and I’m looking forward to seeing your work!” thunderous claps echo in the theater as Injae is handed a bouquet of flowers, and a certificate of appreciation. Jipyeong is ushered by a staff member to pose with the event organizers and Injae, for a photo.

He stands beside her and takes the opportunity to put his arm around her shoulder, but the camera flashes intimidate him and he awkwardly ends up hovering over her, quietly retreating when Injae sees him peripherally. She mischievously shakes her head and puts his arm around her shoulder.

There was no need to be afraid. They didn’t commit any crimes.

Gasps erupted from the audience as they exclaimed their shock. “They look great next to each other! Wah!” someone suddenly yells for everyone to hear, and Injae’s face turns pink. Jipyeong’s eyes crinkle as he smiles more.

Could these goddamn photographers take any longer, he thinks, but Injae is really back in her element. He feels her giddiness in the way she stands, breathes, and gently squeezes her shoulder. 

“Really! I wish I had their looks and talent!” another person hollered, and the conversation was straight out of the How to be 2/3 of Samsan Tech Textbook (or Tech’s Book), Jipyeong thought to himself and nearly guffawed on stage until Injae elbowed him, reading his thoughts.

The event ended successfully, and the only negative comments, if you could call them negative, were complaining that the couple was too lucky to be together. After reading that, Injae yelled a “Ha!” in victory, leaving Jipyeong puzzled on their way out. She doesn’t tell him she was monitoring the comments again, but she’d show him soon. They were all great anyway.

“Let’s go home?” he grabs his car keys and lets Injae hold his arm was they walk to the parking lot. Valets were fine, alright, but the two minutes they spent walking to and from the venues were always golden, and so valets haven’t been called for a good while for them.

She hums in affirmation. The night is still young, but they’re both exhausted, so they settle for getting some food delivered to his… To their place?

Jipyeong started referring to his place as ‘home’ more often lately, since Injae did so first. He couldn’t help but just follow her, and eventually he got used to it. They didn’t officially live together yet, but the set of her slippers, her toothbrush, and an adequate portion of Jipyeon’s walk-in closet solely for her clothes was telling enough of her place in this home.

Injae is asleep by the time Jipyeong is under the sheets, tucking her in as she’s squirming from the cold, pouting in her sleep. The temperature of the room is adjusted, but she still clings onto his body when it’s already quite toasty. He didn’t peg her to actively snuggle whilst asleep, but her soft breathing against his chest always made the world stop for a few moments.

He regretfully whines we he realizes that he didn’t tell her she did well today, when they got home. Jipyeong plants a kiss on her forehead instead, and her hold on him tightens. “You did well,” he says, and hears her steady breathing.

“I love you.” the words involuntarily leave his lips, but he means them wholeheartedly.

Yes, this is love, he tells himself as he brushes the stray hair falling onto her face. She sleeps soundly, as she perpetually deserved to, he notes.

More than twice, she cried her father’s name out in her sleep.

More than twice, she thanked Jipyeong for holding her when she dreamt of losing him again and again in a never-ending loop.

“It’s not your fault.” he reminds her. Somewhere out there, her father is proud of how she’s redeemed herself.

That is love, Jipyeong figures out as wakes up and is relieved to see her still asleep, unvisited by any more nightmares. He stands up to prepare breakfast for both of them. 

Her being here at his place (theirs, he timidly called it in his head), choosing to already call it home, and eating his meals (that weren’t cooked so well) was already more than enough validation for Jipyeong.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I won’t be posting more Start-Up fics soon, sorry for that. Currently struggling financially so I need to work on comms. Anyone interested can contact me [ here! ](https://twitter.com/daeberrie)


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